Reviewed by Dancin' Dave Derbyshire

Sit back with me and imagine that you're at the Hills Christian Life Centre in Australia with hundreds of other Christians. Russell Fragar is directing music and Darlene Zschech is leading worship. On the platform is a talented praise band of guitars, drums and the like and a choir complete with red robes. On the CD sleeve you read Russell's opening exhortation, "Praise is an explosion of joy!," he begins. Press the play button and we're off. There is no warm up time. Darlene launches everyone into the upbeat "Your People Sing Praises" and the pace never really lets up for the whole album1 of 16 tracks. These are songs that reflect the praise of ordinary people who have a great sense of the awesome majesty of God. They are songs of faith to a loving father, whom they know is real. The worshippers just can't stop praising God for how wonderful he has been to them, They long for a touch of God's Holy Spirit and rejoice in the presence of the mighty God. To most of these songs I can imagine people dancing the charismatic two-step, but with such a fast rhythm it could easily turn into running on die spot. I was exhausted just listening. I wonder if the stewards let people out to get a cold drink? I would have needed one! Okay, there is no great lyrical depth to these songs nor do the couple of slightly slower songs give you much time to reflect in worship. In fact, these songs remind me of a time when a church I was in went through a period of discovering what we called "high praise". Though some may be critical of this as "hyped up emotion", I am sure that the people of Hills Christian Life Centre have a great heart of praise towards God. If you want some upbeat songs to let rip in praise to God, then slap this album into your CD player and dance around the living room.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

Interested in reviewing music? Find out more here.